Lived Experiences of Distress Research Group (LEOD)

The LEOD group, led by Prof. Paula Reavey, focuses on building research and developing psychological/social theories of experiences relevant to mental health. The focus fits well with the proposed university Centre for Health and Wellbeing, as the LEOD remit includes theoretical and empirical works relating to experiences of distress, trauma, mental health service and community use. The objective is to develop a program that is largely non-diagnostic and psycho-social in orientation and is already recognised nationally and internationally.

The existing LEOD group has run for several years, gradually accumulating relevant members from permanent staff and visiting scholars. We host a combination of non-traditional members from the expert-by-experience community as well as academics and clinicians from outside the university. Among those communities, we have well-known proponents of a perspective on mental health and distress that positions life events and experiences, rather than diagnosis, at the forefront of psychological theorisation. We have two leading figures from the British Psychological Society sponsored ‘Power, Threat, Meaning Framework’ as visiting scholars who support our research aim. The vision is to promote this alternative perspective through published scholarly work and funded research. We now have members working towards this aim, with invitations to deliver events at a national and international level and a strong and growing body of funded projects. We have also accrued around £12million of funding on mental health and/or related research.

Supported by funding from the National Institute of Health Research (NIHR), Leverhulme, the Economic and Social Research Council and the Wellcome Trust, our research group advances psychological understandings of mental health challenges and service use across a diverse range of groups, including children and young people, general adult, Black and Minority ethnic groups, forensic services and LGBTQ+ groups.

We hold established and emerging links with researchers across the globe, including scholars in the Global South and North. As mental health challenges continue to rise, particularly among the most disadvantaged in society, our mission is to alleviate this burden of inequality.

Collaborating closely with individuals who experience distress, we leverage a broad range of traditional and innovative methodologies. These include Randomized Controlled Trials, qualitative and visual methods, memory work and mixed methods studies. Embracing a user-led ethos and democratization of knowledge production, we explore how service users, lived experience experts, and practitioners can collaborate effectively in improving research protocols and service provision more generally.

Our research on distress and mental health covers issues of memory, the environment and space, trauma, family dynamics, designs of cities and inpatient services, sexuality, help-seeking, inequalities, service use and discrimination. Our work on mental health has directly fed into local and national policy and service delivery improvements.

With a wealth of expertise, including trial design, experimentation, visual methods and, qualitative methodologies and Randomized Controlled Trials, we are at the forefront of innovative approaches to understand the conditions of living that lead to distress and how best to tackle these complex psychological and social issues.

Core Members

Visiting Fellows

PhD Students / Research Assistants

Donna Ciarlo
Charlotte Taylor-Page
Errol Thomas
Rai Waddingham
Temi Onasanya
Hayley Howard Hall
Ebony Baker
Jessica Collier

National Institute for Health and Care Research – in collaboration with Embers the Dragon LTD i4i funding: £1, 868700. Protocol: Effectiveness of an online intervention for parents/guardians of children aged 4–7 years who are concerned about their child’s emotional and behavioural development: protocol for an online randomised controlled trial (EMERGENT study)/

Link to study web page & Link to protocol paper

National Institute for Health and Care Research – in collaboration with King’s college, London: Comparison of Effectiveness and Cost-Effectiveness of Intensive Community Care Services versus Usual Inpatient Care for Young People with Psychiatric Emergencies (IVY): An Internal Pilot followed by a Randomized Controlled Trial Comprising All Intensive Community Service Care Teams in Great Britain: £1, 866800.

Links to NIHR funder page with details and protocol

Mental Health First Aid England: Evaluation of Mental Health First Aid from the Perspective Of Workplace End UseRs – EMPOWER: Funded by Mental Health First Aid England.

Link to protocol paper

NIHR - EQUIP: Enhancing Service user and carer involvement in care planning, £1,800,000: NIHR https://www.journalslibrary.nihr.ac.uk/pgfar/pgfar07090/#/abstract

National Institute for Health and Care Research (NIHR): in collaboration with Queen Mary, University of London, and Ukraine Institute of Health: NIHR Global Health Research Group on Developing And Integrating mobile community mental health Services In Ukraine (DAISI Ukraine): £3.1 million.

Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC): Schools as Enabling Spaces to Improve Learning and Health-Related Quality of Life for Primary School Children in Rural Communities in South Africa, £ 1,999686.76.

A couple of exciting events are coming soon for 2025... Watch this space!